Dancing in the Aisle at Christmas Eve

I love the Christmas Eve service at my church. I recognize most of the people attending because we're not a huge church. It is a time where I see families together, infants to grown children returning to visit. It is a time were I see the the family nature of the church. The Christian faith is not rugged individual with God facing the world. It is people inside families among friends who help nurture each other in the faith.

Tonight, my grandson attended the service. He turned one year old at the beginning of December. He loves music and dances to it. He danced in the center aisle during most of the service, wondering down the aisle to the front and danced next to the pastor. The choir members watched and smiled along with much of the other church.

We also heard the news friends were going to become grandparents and enjoyed sharing their joy as well as their daughter's excitement.

Worshiping God is not an individual experience. It is sharing our joys and tribulations with families and close friends, who act as Christ to us in all our experiences. They help us worship the Lord of the universe who became a man to suffer and die on our behalf. That is a great reason to dance in the aisles -- even for us Presbyterians.

Merry Christmas!

The news this Christmas season is bad. We are going through the worst economic crash in a generation. Christmas this year means with doing with less for many people. Many are out of work and prospects for the new year look bleak. How can Christmas this year be merry?


An interesting Biblical passage for this time of year is Revelation 18.

Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!

But Christmas is a time of looking back to Christ's first coming. What do the troubled times of Revelation have to do with the advent of Christ? What does it have to do with us now?


Jesus' birth in Bethlehem ushered in the last days -- we are living in the end times of Revelation. God paints the picture rich in metaphors of what we are living through. Babylon in Revelation is the metaphor of all that is rich and mighty in the eyes of the people on earth, but it is corrupt. Babylon shows its face in history over and over. The wealth and power of Rome was a prime type of Babylon. The modern Western world in its wealth and power is another reoccurrence of Babylon. In the past few months a lot of wealth has vanished. I see it in my own retirement account, down 30% since September. Revelation speaks of the downfalls of the Babylons in history, including ours this day.

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore...

The current economic crisis that made its visible appearance with with bad loans has crashed throughout the world. The price of oil has dropped dramatically, sales of cars has dropped off so dramatically that the large US automakers are shutting down their factories for months. Even the popular Toyota will report a loss this year. The problems echo thoughout industries around the world.


Christians are in the world but in some fundamental sense we are not part of the world. Revelation speaks of this:

Come out of her, my people,
lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues

We are not to depend on and participate in the evils of our present age. There is much in the western world, in the United States, that is evil. Not all is evil, God works through governments he institutes to accomplish his plans.


So, as we see the global economy crash, we can rejoice with the angels in Revelation 19 that our safety, security, salvation does not depend on the economy, our savings accounts, or what governments can do.

Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for his judgments are true and just...

Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns

So while times look troubling to us now we can take great comfort this Christmas season that God is working out all the details of history for his glory and our good.


God entered history as a little babe in Jesus in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. History has never been that same since as God reigns bring history to its fulfillment.


Merry Christmas!